Wild fowl will be innumerable from the fact of a sur- 
plus of wet weather this season, so snipe, duck and cur- 
lew will abound “right smart.” Chicken shooting com- 
menced Aug. 1; quail shooting commences Oct. 1, and 
from that time on till spring-time it is one continual 
“Happy Hunting Ground.” 
Ye headachy critters, pining away in dingy oflBces, 
dark stores, and over dusty books, “git out” where the 
fresh air will blow off the smell of boots and shoes, dry 
goods, old books, dusty shelves, and what not, and put 
in their place red cheeks, clear brain, solid muscle, and 
a first-class appetite. You haven’t had a good “edge on 
your teeth” for a “dog’s, age;” by spring you will be a 
grave-yard deserter if you don’t make a move; so next 
week pack your carpct-bag, tie your dog loose, buy a 
through ticket to Chetopa, Kan., and take a week or 
two of shooting, which will make you feel — well, try it, 
and you will know “ how it is yourself,!’ as does 
Brother Sports.uak. 
A Discriuiiiiating Rule. 
St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 4. 
They have a model railroad over here in Wisconsin. 
It reads W. C. R. R., which may be interpreted Wis- 
consin Central Railroad, or, “Worst Conducted Rail- 
road,” according to fancy. In pursuance of the “eternal 
fitness of things,” I favor the latter [appellation. The 
established rates of fare on this road, I believe, are pe- 
culiar to itself, at least they are new to me. For in- 
stance : A first-class passenger pays for a twelve miles 
ride, sixty cents; and the “man of trunks” demands a 
tariff of .seventy-five cents on a well-behaved dog for 
the same distance. 
Now I am a “high-tariff man,” and I do not insinu- 
ate that the tariflf on my dog was too high. . On the con- 
trary, quite reasonable — bottom figures, in fact, consid- 
ering the time and not the miles. But the rates on me 
were too low, and I protest against the discrimination, 
and mildly suggest that the management of this road 
appoint an “equalizing committee” to “interview” their 
agents to the end that dogs shall not appear to travel in 
a more “high-toned” style than their masters. 
Burlington. 
On the Border. 
Windsor, Ont., Sept. 5. 
We are waiting very patiently for a visit from editor 
of Rod and Gl'n, and hope jmur stay wilt be long 
enough to enable you to pay a visit to River View Hotel, 
one of the prettiest spots in this Canada of ours, situated 
about six miles from Detroit, where the worthy host, 
Mr. West, is always on hand to entertain you with a 
little shoot or fishing. Several of the Detroit sportsmen 
met about two weeks back to have a little fun. Our 
worthy host had about 100 birds all ready, and while 
one of our party, Mr. Gillman, was distinguishing 
himself, the genial ticket agent of the G. T. R., 
who, along with Mr. O'Hara, from Chicago, was 
on enjoyment bent, came just in time to see Mr. Gill- 
man miss his blue rock, and expres.sed himself how easy 
it was to kill pigeons from a trap like this. Mr. Gill- 
man, who is always ready for fun of any kind, offered 
to bet Mr. Reldy $20 that he could not kill one bird out 
of ten, which of course Mr. R. took, the match to come 
off on the following Tuesday. The arrangement being 
completed, and supposed by everybody that the ten 
cartridges had all the shot extracted, 3Ir. Reidy came 
boldly to the front to shoot, but through some nystake, 
a cartridge loaded with 5 drams of powder and about 
2 oz. shot found its way into the right barrel of Mr. R.’s 
gun, and Mr. Gillman, after a deal of caution and in- 
struction as to whereabouts he was to shopt to kill, Mr. 
R. said “ pull,” when, to the astonishment of Gillman, 
the bird was a dead centre. As there were no side bets 
to shoot off, Mr. R. would not shoot at any more birds, 
and the affair ended in fun for the party. Bang. 
Laws anil Names. 
Jersey City, Sept. 10. 
Please extend to your correspondent “L. L. W,” in 
last issue of Rod and Gun, my thanks for his plain and 
full answer to questions in Rod and Gun of 4th inst. 
We need more “L. L. W’s” or “LL. D’s”to expound 
the confounded laws and terms in vogue in different 
sections, which only cause confusion to become more 
confounded. What better argument can be put forward 
in advocacy of a general game law, and a general no- 
menclature, too, than the fact referred to in “L. L. W’s” 
letter? Now persons might claim ignorance where ig- 
norance should be no excuse; but laws as plain and 
simple as the finger-board at a road-crossing should 
govern in all localities, and things be called by a proper 
name. 
I am no sporting man, but love the sport for sport’s- 
sake, and am desirous of spending an occasional day or 
two, as my time will admit, in some locality easy of ac- 
cess, where I can find a genial companion, and not be 
in fear of iron bars, or waste my time in arguments 
with owners of lands. And if consistent with your 
rules, I should be pleased to have the address of some 
parties in Pike or adjoining counties of Pennsylvania, 
with a view of an acquaintance and a day’s sport in 
due time. 
With my hearty “good wishes” for the prosperitj' and 
acknowledged usefulness of our paper, I am, etc., 
“Reebuck.” 
Sport in Iowa. 
Roland, la., Sept. 8. 
To the lover of chicken shooting, this State probably 
affords more pleasure than any other in the country. 
Though not as plenty here as they are further from the 
railroad, yet a couple of good guns would need a horse 
and wagon to carry what they could shoot in an all-day’s 
tramp. 
There. is hardly a ten-acre stubble that does not afford 
one or more covej^s, and with a good dog three or four 
double shots can frequently be had before they all leave 
the field. If the shooter is careful to select his hunt- 
ing ground close to the prairie, he can go on beating 
the feeding grounds until about ten o’clock, and then 
hunt in the middle of the day those that he had marked 
down in the grass; on the other hand, if he hunt where 
there is much corn, he will have to be content with 
shooting on the stubble only, as it is almost impossible 
to mark them down in the corn. 
There are quite a number of Eastern sportsmen in 
this State for a few weeks’ chicken shooting, and there 
would be a great many more -were it not for 
the trouble of getting here with their dogs, 
and the fear of having them poisoned after they did get 
here, as there seems to be a dread among Eastern sports- 
men of the'railroad people and the We.stern farmers. 
Of the railroad people I can say I was very much disap- 
pointed, as I found there were none treated with more 
respect than the sportsman. From New Jersey to Buf- 
falo via Erie road there were fifteen setters in the bag- 
gage car, and not one of them was injured, which is the 
reason^why so many sportsmen who eo West go over 
this road, their dogs receiving such good care. 
From Buffalo to Detroit, over the Canada Southern, 
there were eight dogs in the baggage car, and •when we 
stopped for dinner the baggage man fed and watered 
them all. From Detroit to Chicago, on the Michigan 
Central, there was an unusual amount of baggage, and 
we felt a littls anxious about our dogs ; but trunks were 
properly piled and room made for them. Of the fifteen 
dogs that left New Jersey, fourteen of them were bound 
for Chicago, and not one of them was hurt in travel- 
ing all that distance. The railroad people begin to be 
alive to their interests, and treat sportsmen and their 
dogs in such a way that they will ,not be afraid to 
travel over their roads again. 
At Chicago we called on Mr. TurriO, your Western 
manager, who kindly gave us all the information we 
needed. We found quite a number of live sportsmen in 
misplace, and the way they are working, it will not be 
the fault of the managers if the coming bench show is 
not a success. 
On the Chicago and^Normwestern road dogs are car- 
ried free, which makes this the sportsmen’s route. 
In the people here we were as much disappointed as 
we were in the railroads. The writer expected to find 
a sign on nearly every fence prohibiting shooting, and 
where there were no fences, we expected to see in the 
middle of the field a stalwart granger, with a brace of 
mastiffs ready to devour any one who might dare to 
cross with a gun. Instead of this, we found the people 
perfectly willing for any amount of men and dogs to 
cross their lands,ias there is nothing to damage, the 
wheat and oats having been harvested, and as they do 
not cut the corn from the ground, it does not injure it 
to hunt through it. 
Ducks are quite plenty, teal have been very numer- 
ous, but many have not been seen for a few days past. 
Mallard begin to make their appearance. 
C. B. Whitford. 
A FLOCK of 2,500 sheep at Mission San Jose, Cal., got frightened 
and ran into a patch of poison oak. Here they got tangled, and piled 
one on another In layers six or eight deep, and some 700 were smoth- 
ered or crushed to death. 
Breech-Loaders. • 
[From Army and Navy Journal.] 
When the muzzle-loader, as a military weapon, had 
been entirely superseded by the more rapid rifle charged 
at the breech, it still remained the prejudice, fashion 
or opinion in England, that for long range work the 
breech-loader was deficient in accuracy. Fp to 600 
yards, in the Queen’s Prize match, the old Snider was 
used, but in the later stages, at 800 and 1,000 yards, the 
muzzle-loading Whitworth or Metford has from the first 
supplanted it. The new weapon of England, the Mar- 
tini-Henry rifle, is expected to change all this, being 
represented as accurate up to 800 yards; but there seems 
to be a good deal of trouble with this famous gun, on 
account of its tremendous recoil, and the battle over its 
adoption has hardly yet terminated. The only real and 
substantial triumph gained by modern breech-loaders, 
when put in competition with muzzle-loaders, was that 
gained at Dollymount by the Sharps and Remington 
Creedmoor rifles shooting against one of the very best 
muzzle-loaders to be found in the British islands. Up 
to the opening of Creedmoor, or very shortly before 
it, no serious attempt had been made by man- 
ufacturers of breech-loading firearms to produce a 
weapon able to hold its own for accuracy at 1,000 yards. 
Hitherto the rifles made had been coarse, clumsy mili- 
tary pieces, or hunting rifles, only differing from the 
military class by having less stock and no bayonet stud. 
While many were nominally sighted up to 800 yards 
the divisions on the hausse were for the most part theo- 
retical, and the cartridges themselves did not contain 
enough powfler to carry the bullet beyond four hundred 
yards, or sometimes six, with any accuracy. Good 
enough at .short range, at half a mile they were useless, 
and yet all this was to be changed by the adoption of a 
simple improvement. The sub.stitution of the Berdan 
brass central fire cartridge, with its solid head, movable 
primer and faculty of reloading, for the old copper rim 
fire concern was the real starting point of modern prac- 
tical breech-loading firearms on the road to success, and 
that success has been so great as to compel all the world 
to follow' it. From the Berdan brass central fire shell 
sprang the Sharps and Remington Creedmoor rifles, and 
the victory at Dollymount. 
Theoretically speaking, there is no reason why a rifle 
load-ing at the breech should not be just as accurate as 
one loading at the muzzle. Practically, we find that after 
500 or 600 yards the accuracy of the militarj' breech-load- 
ers falls off, and it is only with Sharps and Remington 
Creedmoors that one may hope for constant success be- 
yond that distance against a muzzle-loader. One reason 
of this is that the military cartridges only carry a charge 
adequate to five hundred yards. The other reason h^ 
been lately investigated, and reveals itself to be more 
serious than is generally supposed, being nothing less 
than carelessness of manufacture, and especially want 
of correspondence between the chamber of the gun and 
the cartridge therein inserted. 
The theory of the brass central fire cartridge is well 
known and simple. It is that brass, being a strong and 
somew'hat elastic metal, w’ill stand the shock of a heavy 
charge, and that its solid head will serve as a perfect gas 
check. A properly made brass shell is supposed to 
stand any amount of reloading, and to be always safe 
from bursting and leak-fire. The experience of Creed- 
moor has, however, taught many there that these as- 
sumptions are not always safe. Cartridges are some- 
times found to stick, w'hen being extracted, showing 
that the limit of elasticity of the brass has been passed 
and that the metal has yielded to the strain, as copper 
used to in the days of rimflre. Occasionally, in fact not 
very infrequently, a cartridge leaks fire backward, and 
the accidents to faces and eyes from this cause have pro- 
duced in many minds a prejudice against the class of 
rifles represented by the Remington and Whitney, inas- 
much as those guns afford no protection against a mis- 
chance of this kind. In the Sharps, Ward Burton, 
Peabody, and guns of the bolt or lever class, there is not 
so much danger from a leak-fire, as it goes upward and 
not backward, and this advantage has weighed heavily 
with many in adopting a rifle for personal use. A se- 
ries of late experiments made by an expert in the cart- 
ridge business, and very kindly furnished to us for the 
benefit of the rifle-shooting public, assign a very reason- 
able cause for most of these accidents, and suggest a 
very simple remedy. 
When the first Berdan cartridges were made in this 
country for the Russian rifles of 42 cal., a very careful 
series of experiments was made by Gen. Gorloff, result- 
ing in the present well-known long bottle-necked cart- 
ridge, the model of all our long-range cartridges. It was 
then decided, by experiment, that the extreme limit of 
variation between the size of the brass cartridge and 
that of the chamber that contained it should be .003 of an 
inch. The exceeding of that limit produced an undue 
strain of the brass, and always terminated in a rupture 
sooner or later. The uneven qualities of different lots 
of brass have of course some influence on the .strength 
of a cartridge, but the general rule was found to hold 
good, that a chamber which did not exceed the diam- 
eter of the cartridge by more than .003 of an inch, would 
hold the cartridge and preserve it from rupture. With 
the Berdan cartridges used in Russia under these restric- 
tions, the very best results have been obtained for uni- 
formity of fire, and misses, leaks and ruptures are alike 
unknown, while the only trouble ever experienced has 
been in an occasional bad piece of brass, against which 
no precaution has yet proved totally reliable. 
The next army gun that was used with a central fire 
brass bottle-necked cartridge was the Spanish Reming- 
